Composing in the
Age of GenAI
How should the composing world respond to GenAI?
When internet-users around the world woke up on November 30th, 2022, they suddenly had access to ChatGPT, the first widely-available generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) application capable of producing sophisticated text output (cite). Some quickly embraced the tool and began integrating it in their composing practice while others were slower to recognize its power and relevance. Regardless of adoption speed, trends indicate that people are increasingly turning to ChatGPT–or any of their later-to-the-game competitors–for work and school. Less than a year after ChatGPT’s launch, GenAI is already embedded in the professional world and in the student toolbox.
This transformative technology introduces innumerable questions for stakeholders in the world of composing. The questions range from the seemingly simple (e.g. how do I get GenAI to write an email?) to the foundational and existential (e.g. what is the necessarily human element of writing that we should preserve and practice and teach?).
How should the composing world respond to this unprecedented explosion of writing technologies? I offer this site as one space to explore questions, offer tentative answers, develop and share resources, and critically reflect how we will allow GenAI to enter our lives, our workplaces, and our classrooms.
Unless otherwise indicated, the resources and ideas on this page represent the evolving work of Dr. Meagan E. Malone. Many of the ideas here come from the work of and conversations with Amy Cates, Dr. Lilian Mina, and Dr. Danny Siegel. The resources and ideas do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Birmingham at Alabama.
Recent Blog Posts
How do students FEEL about my new grading policy for the age of GenAI?
Last week, I had my First Year Composition (FYC) students complete an anonymous survey that asked them how they felt about a new assessment strategy I am piloting this semester. The policy, which I detail in a previous post, is designed to resist using plagiarism...
The New Yorker visits the academic world of digital composing and rhetoric
October’s first issue of the New Yorker includes an article exploring what it’s like to compose with GenAI. While I wasn’t surprised to find this topic in the pages of the New Yorker, I couldn’t believe that author Cal Newport draws on ideas and voices from the...
What to do with student work that uses GenAI irresponsibly?
Even though many of my UAB colleagues and I distrust and choose not to use GenAI detection software, we still want our students to take on the challenge of learning, to produce work that represents exactly where they are in their educational journey, and to...
Ending the gen-AI detection war: Turning off Turnitin’s AI-Checker
For many, the immediate response to ChatGPT’s 2022 rollout was to spend money and time developing plagiarism checkers to detect the presence of GenAI writing. Now, at the start of the 2024 fall semester, any simple Google search yields countless articles with titles...
GenAI and the Workplace: Interviewing UAB Alumni Haley Wells
This summer, I interviewed Alabama Holocaust Education Center’s (AHEC) Program Manager, Haley Wells, to discuss the role GenAI plays in her current work. Wells is a recent graduate of UAB’s accelerated master’s program where she completed a Master’s degree in History...
Are you interested in exchanging ideas with those invested in teaching, learning, and working in the age of GenAI? Visit the contact page to learn more and to reach out.
All the illustrations were created using Adobe’s Firefly Generative AI.
